2010 Chassagne Montrachet Les Caillerets

The 2010 Chassagne-Montrachet Caillerets is the most polished and refined of the Chassagnes. It possesses remarkable elegance, although stylistically it is like many of the other 2010s here in its textural richness and body. Sweet honeyed notes wrap around the intense, viscous finish. Here the extroverted qualities of the vintage are very nicely balanced by the wine's underlying minerality. Anticipated maturity: 2014+. Proprietor Mounir Saouma thinks 2010 is a great vintage and therefore he wanted to push the boundaries as far as possible by slowing down the maturation of the wines. He kept temperatures very low in the cellar to encourage slow, long malolactic fermentations and long elevage in barrel. Among the unusual practices Saouma adopted with the 2010s is stirring the lees a full year after the harvest. At the time of my visit, in July 2012, none of the 2010 whites had been bottled, the only estate in Burgundy I know of that had still not bottled their 2010s. The wines Le Moine 2010s are big, rich and powerful. In many cases, the 2010s appear to have structures that are in the realm of reds. A number of the wines also show slight elements of botrytis that will become more pronounced over time. In addition to these wines, I also tasted the 2010 Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot, which was too closed to properly evaluate. Importer: Vintus, Pleasantville, NY; tel. (919) 769-3000